If you were to seek two cases that stand as glaring testimony to the way in which the Jindal administration employs a double standard in addressing legal and ethical issues, you need look no further than the cases involving Murphy Painter and Jeff Mercer.

Though the men never met and while one was a state employee and the other a private contractor, together, the two represent the composite poster child for victims of political favoritism and corruption. Both fell prey to unethical behavior and of the way political priorities have been set by the Jindal administration for the past eight years.

We have chronicled the manner in which Jindal and his henchmen made Painter a scapegoat by firing him from his post as director of the State Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control (ATC). We have shown how, when he refused to knuckle under and bend the rules for the benefit of Anheuser-Busch distributor Southern Eagle, SMG (the Louisiana Superdome management company), the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District (LSED) Board, and Tom Benson, Jindal not only fired Painter but even tried (unsuccessfully) to prosecute him in federal district court on bogus criminal charges of computer fraud.

Not only was Painter acquitted of all (there were 42 counts, none of which stuck) charges, but the state then was required to repay Painter’s legal costs of $474,000.

Jindal executive counsel Stephen Waguespack, now President of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), insisted—twice—that the permit be expedited, Painter asked that he put his concerns in writing but Waguespack responded that he was far too busy to reduce his demands to writing (which would’ve left a paper trail, don’t you see).

Instead, Painter was simply fired and SMG got its permit. Of course, it was mere coincidence that the Benson family, SMG, its law firm, Southern Eagle and members of the LSED Board had combined to dump more than $207,000 into Jindal’s campaigns between 2002 and 2012.

Quick as the Jindal crowd was to administer justice (read reprisals) in the Painter case, it was painfully slow in ferreting out reports of corruption in one of the largest agencies in the state—the Department of Transportation and Development—and even slower in addressing those reports with the proper corrective measures. The fact is, nothing was ever done about reports of attempted shakedowns of a DOTD contractor and the subsequent harassment of that same contractor that eventually put him out of business.

It turned out to be an expensive oversight on the state’s part.

On Friday, a 12-person jury returned a unanimous verdict in which it awarded Jeff Mercer of Mangham $20 million, plus eight years (and counting) of judicial interest for allowing DOTD supervisors to condone demands of cash and equipment from Mercer by a DOTD inspector (we call that extortion where I come from; the inspector allegedly threatened Mercer with inspection problems with his work). Moreover, Mercer was able to prove that DOTD deliberately withheld payments for work performed by Mercer as payback for his whistleblowing, first reported by LouisianaVoice in April of 2012. https://louisianavoice.com/2014/04/09/contractor-claims-in-lawsuit-that-dotd-official-attempted-shake-down-for-cash-equipment-during-monroe-work/

Mercer had even taken his complaint to the governor’s office, but nothing was ever done. No referral to the Inspector General’s office. The IG, by the way, works directly for and answers only to the governor and was prompt enough to bring charges against Painter three years ago.

So, the question must be asked: why was the governor’s office not front and center in taking appropriate action on reports of extortion, threats of federal prosecution against Mercer, and refusals to pay for work performed by him?

Why was the demand for compliance so urgent in the Painter case and the concern so lacking in the Mercer case?

To paraphrase Jindal: two words.

Campaign contributions.

Benson, SMG, and members of the LSED Board were major Jindal campaign contributors. Mercer was not.

Benson and his associates were friends of Jindal and as such, they possessed massive political power that the governor could not ignore—nor did he wish to.

Mercer was a small contractor from the small North Louisiana town of Mangham, situated about halfway between Winnsboro and Rayville—and smaller than each of those. He was not influential.

He was, they thought, an insignificant little nobody who could be ignored because he had neither the influence nor the political muscle to make himself heard over the rattle of dinner plates at the governor’s mansion or over the lofty, self-serving campaign rhetoric about Jindal’s gold standard of ethics.

The administration, it turns out, committed the worst tactical error possible in warfare and politics: it vastly underestimated the determination of a little man when he is truly pissed and it woefully underestimated the indignation and ire of a 12-person jury upon their hearing of the injustice heaped upon one of their own by an uncaring bureaucracy and of the unscrupulous actions of those within that same bureaucracy.

16 Responses

These two documented incidents are just two of many ongoing and past incidents of political wrongdoings. Many companies have bought their way into Louisiana politics. The pay to play culture has not stopped. That’s a good argument to have an IG office that answers to someone other than the politicians.

It’s amazing both of these guys had the fortitude to never give up and a shame they had to persevere as long as they did to get justice. I don’t remember negative publicity about Mr. Mercer, but Murphy Painter not only had to wait a long time for justice, but had his name drug through the mud the whole time.

Those dinner plates aren’t going anywhere once JBE takes office. Or even before he is sworn in. The day after JBE won the race of the century he met with lobbyists and high dollar donors to solicit donations to pay for the transition and glitzy inauguration. When JBE was asked who was at the closed door meeting he decided that that information was going to be privileged and not be made public, do much for transparency.

I’m no prosecutor. Just one of many people who voted for JBE. This state has been burned so many times by false promises of clean, open government. Again I am no prosecutor nor do I need to be one to point out what is reported in the press.

It is a shame money for the transition and inauguration have to come from private sources, but most of the people funding it were also heavy campaign contributors so their financial participation here is of marginal benefit. This isn’t to say an elaborate inauguration ceremony is appropriate.

I vividly remember Roemer’s inauguration and hope JBE’s will be more like his, as reported in the New York Times:

This was emblematic of Roemer’s approach to things. He didn’t believe he needed to curry favor with special interests by having them fund the typical coronation ceremony that would fly in the face of the problems our state was facing and was puffery in any case..

Roemer really was different. I still hope JBE will be. Early indications are not encouraging, but I am going to hope they are not an indication that things are going to simply be “bidness as usual” under the new administration.

Maybe Roemer was not pragmatic enough, but there has to be a limit to give-and-take and a willingness to break with the traditions that have left us stagnated at the bottom of almost everything.

Our current governor’s picture could appear in the dictionary next to the definition of hypocrite. We have to hope that picture can’t be easily replaced in 2016. Although I become more cynical as time passes, I’m still going to hope…for a while longer…well, at least until the end of January 2016…maybe.

Sadly but realistically, there has always and everywhere been and will continue to be greed, corruption and wrongdoing where large sums of money and power are involved. Remember “the love of money is the root of evil” and that Biblical statement is the root of the two cases of corruption detailed in Tom’s post. But jindals’ fool’s gold standard of ethics certainly is the pinnacle of hypocrisy and corruption.

There is simply no excuse for the fact that Murphy Painter was persecuted to the extent that he was or that no one at any level in DOTD took action to rein in the shakedowns by the lowest level staff that escalated to financial ruin of Mr. Mercer. All emblematic of the completely corrupt, rotten, evil administration of the snake-in-chief about to slither out of the mansion (with apologies to certain members of snakedom. We all know the poisonous ones give even the beneficial snakes a bad name, which is why politicians are so often likened to snakes.)

What sets the decent public servants apart from the serpents is intolerance of corrupt actions by government employees, either to line their own pockets, or at the behest of donors and supporters. The extent to which Messrs. Painter and Mercer were so shamefully persecuted are extreme examples of official corruption gone wild, the likes of which we are unlikely to see again after the eight year bj we have had to endure.

In an atmosphere where campaign support can run amok and devolve into quid pro quo, it does seem foolish that state government does not fund the transition and provide a modest amount for a simple inauguration program. An extravagant ball can and should be privately funded. Those funding an extravaganza may well wish to keep their names quiet, and that is perfectly legal since it’s not a campaign event. And since those donors have, in all probability, already contributed to the successful campaign, there is probably little more to be gained in terms of access to the governor .

All that said, many loyal readers voted for JBE in the hope for a decent, corruption-free chief executive. While we are holding JBE to his honor pledge, we are also assuming he will hold his staff and underlings to the same level of accountability and will not tolerate Painter-Mercer type persecution, or anything even remotely akin.

But we are not going to sleep for four years. Tom Aswell, Bob Mann, Lamar White, C.B. Forgotston, Stephen Windham, Lindseysaintrose, Fredster, OneStateWorker, and the rest, will still be observing, holding elected officials accountable and shouting from the top of the capitol when the governor, his staff, legislators, officials and others misuse their power and attempt to abuse their positions and crush the citizenry. We have discovered and skillfully use the power of electronic communication, guerilla marketing and social media, and that is not going away.

To the shame of the mainstream media, LouisianaVoice and Tom Aswell have been monumentally successful in contributing to righting the wrongs of several state agencies and officials – the Edmonson retirement affair, Jim Mercer’s successful court case, shining light on Murphy Painter’s travails, the mess within the auction and dentistry boards, and many less-significant breaches that have contributed to the overall pattern of official putrification of the current administration.

So, in a friendly warning to the new folks about to move into state government, we know you are reading the blogs, and that you know we are watching, and that we will hold you accountable, AND that the other side will crucify you if you continue jindalesque misgovernance. Disappoint the citizens at your peril. So, en garde, and best wishes, we are with you all the way.

It is so tiresome to learn of wrongdoing and never see any one punished, fined or even have their reputations ruined. I suppose Vitter’s reputation finally caught up with him but he will prosper, none the less. It is time that when people are unethical, break laws and cheat in government, that they be punished. This might help in deterring the wholesale corruption. It is ingrained, though.

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